Emerald Fireworks
by Tess 4 5
Summary: Here comes the last day of the year, ending with the long-awaited New Year's Eve party Barbara is so nervous about. The new year will be a brand new chapter of their lives but for now they (mostly) enjoy the last remaining hours of their Cornish dream and (of course) the party. Count down... (Sequel to my series: Merry Christmas(M), ... Trip To Howenstow(T), Butterflies(M))
1. Morning

****Morning****

**Author's notes:** I don't own any of the original characters nor the original Inspector Lynley Mysteries – they belong to Elizabeth George and the BBC.

Please let me know if I did something terribly wrong (rating, grammar, spelling...). Thanks!

Reviews and comments are very welcome!

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Finally! Here comes the last day of the year, ending with the long-awaited New Year's Eve party Barbara is so nervous about. The new year will be a brand new chapter of their lives but for now they (mostly) enjoy the last remaining hours of their Cornish dream and (of course) the party.

(Sequel to the T- and M-rated series starting with Merry Christmas, previous episodes were Trip To Howenstow (T) and Butterflies (M))

You don't have to read _Butterflies_ for continuation.

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I'm posting this episode one by one (or two by two ;-) ) because some chapters still need to be revised but most of it is finished. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. It took a while because I wanted it to be perfect (or some such). And as a sideline I have to go to work again *sigh*, make myself a great weekend on a heavy metal festival \m/ ... AND am writing on another story inbetween. I have far too many ideas...

But now - enjoy!

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**Count down...**

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**10...**

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It was midway through the morning of the final day of the year. Judith sat in the kitchen munching buttered toast and languidly reading the newspapers. Her mother and Isobel were bustling about somewhere in the house, guiding the servants and arranging things for the party this evening. Frederick was up too but kept himself hidden behind a book in the library to be out of the way of the busy people. Peter, Emily and Stephanie lolled about in the great study, which means they were into some mobile phone or internet matters. Judith could hear the hyperloudly playing rock music even in the kitchen. She nodded in time with it.

"That's incredibly awful." Daze moaned her comment on this noise when she entered the kitchen.

"They're still young, Daze, remember what we've listened to and what your father thought of it." Isobel, just a step behind, intervened.

"That's different..."

"Not at all!"

"Morning!" Judith said. " 'nother coffee? Just made..."

"Good morning, Judith. That's lovely. Your brother still isn't up?"

Judith grinned smugly. As far as she would tell from witnessing a night of their stay in St. Ives Barbara and Thomas would have to recover and regain some sleep. "Well, as far as I would tell..." she started meaningful.

Daze gave her a warning look to stop her telling any frivolity again. She had come to the opinion that her daughter had far too much pleasure in teasing the couple. But Isobel could imagine what Judith likely would have said and laughingly picked up the thread.

"They're truely potty about each other, aren't they." she asked with a genuine smile.

"Oh, and how!" Judith answered. "It was about time, if you ask me. They've spent far too much time creeping around each other. And now I think they couldn't be seperated anymore." Then she chuckled. "Barbara finally seems to accustom herself to all this." She made a vague gesture around. "And to him! She's even started mimicking his parlance sometimes."

Daze put down her cup of coffee and wondered aloud that she thought she would be the only person having recognised this. "Like _he_ had started to swear." She made a dramatic gesture. "Such a bad mother I am. All my bloody attempts to teach him good behaviour went phut."

* * *

The three Ladies had started to giggle like school-girls when Thomas entered the kitchen.

" 'mornin', ladies. Well, what are you hens again giggling about?" he smiled at the women.

The _three hens_ bursted out in laughter but none gave an explanation. Thereby Thomas could answer to himself that they had tattled again and it was probably about him again so he shook his head in amused disbelief.

When she regained her breath Daze asked where Barbara was and with a slight blushing Thomas just told her that she was still sleeping. He knew very well what had made Barbara tired. Or better _who_. They had been making love half of the night.

The elder ladies glossed it over and turned their attention back on the upcoming party so they left the kitchen to go on bustling about. Even Judith kept her mouth shut but enjoyed it silently grinning.

"You don't need to hide your raised eyebrows, Judith. I can see that." Thomas grumbled.

Half an hour later Barbara came down, still yawning. She was in her sweat pants and shirt and had put on her running shoes.

"You're up to sports?" Thomas asked and got up to get her a cup of coffee. On his way he gave her a gentle kiss before Barbara sat down.

Barbara nodded. "Too less exercise the last weeks. I need... Judith!" she blushed.

Judith had started grinning ever so smugly and now held up her hands in defence. "I wasn't saying anything!"

This time Thomas also could not suppress a grin while he put the coffe cup in front of Barbara.

Then he got himself another cup of tea. He was already wearing breeches and his italian riding boots because he wanted to do a little horse-riding as long as it was not raining. Barbara's eyes went after him and graced his tightly clad ass cheeks with an adoring look over the rim of her cup and she lost herself in thoughts about last night. Judith became aware of that and started to tease her again.

"I think he had done some work-outs lately. Muscled ass, isn't it?" she whispered. Being caught Barbara flushed.

"Indeed." she though whispered back. "And the thighs... whoopy!"

Judith fanned an imaginary fire down. "They will be hot to dance with!" she giggled.

Barbara looked shocked. "Oh, no, I don't dance, I..."

"Sure you will." Judith winked. "Look at those cheeks of his and think again!"

"Ladies, I'm not deaf." Thomas grumbled.

"Be honest, Tommy, you glamour boy. You've put those pants on just to present yourself."

"I was going to exercise Olafur, you cheeky one." Thomas asked Barbara if she also would like to ride. "On a horse, Judith," he added "and keep back whatever you had in mind!" he glared at his laughing sister. Even Barbara had to chuckle. But she would prefer to have a little run around the manor, or better down the long driveway and a little up and down the road and then perhaps later she would join him in the riding arena.

"And after that you'll join _me_ and we assist each other preparing." Judith said. "Get dressed, hair-do to be done, make-up..."

"Bollocks!" Barbara rolled her eyes and looked at Thomas searching for support. He raised his arms in defence.

"I leave that to you, ladies. I see you in the arena." he kissed Barbara and left.

In the instant he was out of the kitchen Judith asked Barbara to hand her the package from Pan-Yong so she could have the dress they bought there secretly be ironed. The two women arranged to meet at about seven thirty in Judith's rooms to prepare themselves for the evening.

"You'll have to make him faint! Or propose!" Judith laughed.

"Oh, shut up, Judith." Barbara slightly panicked. _Everything but this!_

Judith grinned and patted her arm. "We'll see."

Then both seperated for their own businesses.

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**...**


	2. Run

**Run**

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**9...**

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Barbara pinned her hair into a ponytail and looked at her watch. _Alright, one hour, that will do._

She stretched a bit in front of the door and with a look into the sky gave herself a private weather forecast. The partly blue sky would become cloudy and she prognosticated wind, drizzle and rain for later that day. _Better be back then. It's too cold anyway.  
_

She put on her gloves, stuffed her scarf into her sweatshirt and ran off slowly. Coming along at the riding arena she waved at riding Thomas who whistled after her.

"Shut up, cheeky bloke, or I'll get you arrested for harassment!" she shouted back at him with a grin. He waved laughing and Barbara continued her run down the long driveway and out of the gate. There she stopped and looked in both directions.

_Bloody hell, into nothing or... into nothing._

She realized that there was a lot of landscape down and up the road. After a short while running she added ...a_nd no single car for about twenty minutes. Crazy. Even for that time of the year.  
_

After some thirty minutes she stopped at a gate, hopped a bit and stretched her legs and arms. Then she let her gaze brush the wide meadows.

_Beautiful..._ she thought._ And so very isolated. I wonder if all this belongs to the estate... _She could understand why Thomas returned here whenever he needs time for himself, time to think, time to loose his dark thoughts. When he once again tries to hide himself from the rest of the world though she always knew that he was here. Often enough had she called his mother when Thomas had once again disappeared without a word for more than 24 hours. He always went down here to his beautiful home county.

She let her gaze and her mind wander for a while to where she was now, to where _they_ were now, to what happened in the last few days and how lovely and worry-free the time in St. Ives was. No need to hurry, no need to think of work, no need to think of others but themselves. She knew it could not go on forever, the time on leave had to end in four days. Probably even earlier, when they drive off from here, at least as soon as they would arrive in London, as soon as she would be back home. And then the drab monotony of everyday life will strike back as hard as possible. With every hour spent in Cornwall this would become even harder.

__But it's inevitable. It's really __about time__ to return to London! Time to return to __my__ home. _I need normality. I need to wake up from this dream. I need to stop playing princess. These shoes are far too big for me. I need to stop thinking I could have a future with Thomas. Really, what will that be? Lady of the estate? Fancy dresses, posh parties, smalltalk with people I don't like?_

She hesitated._ Children? Well, that would be the easiest... matter. _Though being alone she slightly blushed with a smile. She could become accustomed to the thought of having children. _That's not the thing.  
_

_Moving in with Thomas in London would be one other thing easy to arrange and get familiar with. London is a terrain I'm used to, but at Howenstow? One day he will want to give up the Met and return here. I'd never fit and he'd never give up his Cornish home. Perhaps he would try but I know after a while he would become homesick and leave here. And never under any circumstances would he sell Howenstow. Rather would he keep it as a holiday home. _She chuckled. This thought was too absurd._ And me living here? With all that posh stuff and scary noble people? These small-talkers... Even if Thomas would object I am not born to live in this world, in _his_ world. But still... _Barbara slapped herself inwardly for that thought.

_No, not 'still...' Yes, I love him. Though I still haven't dared to tell him that. And he said he loves me... Why exactly me? __Of all women in the world - ___me!_ But still that might be too less for... For what? Becoming one of his lot? Never. Participate in his life? Be a part of his world? You are far too different, Barbara! Wake up! _She sighed._  
_

_I need to make me dinner on my own again. I have to iron my clothes on my own again. I have to return in the evening and find my bed unmade like I've left it in the morning. I need some nights on my own again. I can't... _She blushed by the thought that they made love every night since they arrived here. In her head she heard his soft voice. She heard the rain dropping against the windows undisturbed by any other sounds but their own whispers and moans. She heard the waves rolling onto the shore at Lizard Point with no more sounds but the crying of some sea gulls in the distance and his sweet words into her ears. She felt the wind in her hair and the foggy humidity waving onto her face. She had the smell of wet grass and heather in her nose, a slight taste of salt on her tongue. She recalled the sweaty, salty taste and the earthy and spicy smell of Thomas._  
_

_Bloody hell, you should stop that, Barbara!_ she cursed herself. _I need some city sounds. Something that brings me back down to earth. Blaring sirens, smelly smog, shouting people, normality and work, beggars and crime scenes..._

She inhaled the cold and clean Cornish air and thought once more of his DI, of his broad shoulders, his brown hair, his dark and tender eyes and his reassuring smile. A smile that seemed to tell her that this _is_ real and she still walks with both feets on the ground.

_...and I need this bloody Lord. _she admitted_. His bloody Lordship of this bloody estate _and with his bloody family liking me, even seem to accept me, seem to help me ajusting to this unfamiliar world without denying myself. A___nd again there is this bloody fear that this bloody dream maybe working. Fear... Hope, actually. Scaring hope that all this may become reality. _

She clenched the wooden gate._ No! No, no, no! More likely it would not. And if, then the contact back with the earth will be heavier than you could imagine. Don't fly, Barbara. Just don't. You need to Stop! Dreaming! Now!  
_

Barbara stretched her shoulders, wiped away the tear that dared to run down her cheek, kicked at the gate and turned back to the road to Howenstow. Her inner mayhem was not at all soothened or rearranged.

"F***!" she swore and sped up.

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	3. Ride

**Ride**

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**8...**

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Returning from her refreshing speed run Barbara jogged slower straight to the riding area where Thomas still was exercising Olafur, his old Icelandic horse. There was a horsetrough, a big stony trough, and she bowed down to the tap to drink some handful of the nearly icecold water.

"Cheers, Barbara, leave some drops for the horses." Thomas teased her.

Barbara startled. She had not recognised him stopping next to her. She looked up to him. He looked gorgeous she thought. _Now, _that's_ his Lordship, on his horse, proudly looking down to those of us who are doomed to walk by foot._

The gentle smile on his lips and his loving graze indeed told her something very different.

"You should come up to me." he said and patted behind him. _She looks so adorable when she's exhausted._ What leaps in his mind of course was not a _run_ that causes sweat and panting.

"Never." Barbara fervently refused. "Not my level up there, that's for sure."

Thomas laughed ignoring the equivocation and from his standing position he set the gelding into a gallop around the arena because he suddenly had to release some joyful energy. He came again to a halt next to Barbara and grinned down to her. Ruffled Olafur snorted onto her shoulder. "I really would like to have you up here. What about I unsaddle him, you sit in front of me so I can support you and you and I make some slow rounds."

Barbara blushed. The thought of sitting in front of Thomas on that huge horse sounded not so bad anyway, in fact she just noticed the intended ambiguity in his words and she visualised them together. She absentmindedly stroke the curious nostrils of the horse without dropping her gaze from Thomas who in turn noticed how easy she handled Olafur. _As if she is used to those beasts._ he wondered.

"You sure that you never have dealt with horses?" he asked. "You seem to have no fear."

"What? No. There's no need for horses in Acton..." she shook her head. "No Lords there, y'know."

Thomas jumped off the horse and cupped her chin. His lips brushed hers slightly.

"Even when it comes to the simple thing of horseriding you reduce it to your bloody difference topic." He smiled. "Stop that bloody bullshit!"

"I would appreciate that _you_ stop swearing, your Lordship." Barbara smiled back at him. "It is no decent behaviour."

Laughing he gave her another kiss and then unsaddled Olafur. He knew that she had just experienced something like riding when she was on holidays with her family and it had always been without a saddle. _Ok, and on a donkey._

"Right. No objections. Climb the fence and mount him." He smiled reassuringly.

Barbara backed off and asked if he was mad.

"I've already answered that. Now up with you." He gave her a gentle bottom smack.

Finally Barbara gave in. She climbed the fence and from there mounted the gelding. Thomas guided her around.

* * *

Her mobile rang.

"No phone calls on a horseback."

Barbara ignored him. "Havers."

"No phone calls on a horseback, I said!" Thomas repeated.

_"Barbara?"_ It was Nkata on the other end of the line.

"Winston!" she laughed. "Hi!"

_"Did I hear horseback?" _

"Make it brief!" Thomas ordered.

_"And this was his Lordship again, whatever you say, Barbara."_

"Whatever you think, Winnie." Barbara said surrendering. _The less I argue, the less he'd ask and avoiding is not lying._ "To what do I owe the honour of your revisited inquisition?"

_"I just wanted to say hi, ask if you're truly out of town and, if yes, wish you a Happy New Year. Did I really hear _horseback_?!"_

Barbara laughed about his question. "Yes, Winnie, I _am_ out of town and yes I _am_ sitting on a horse. Actually I'm just led around a bit for fun."

_"...and you _are_ in Cornwall! _You sound relaxed, Barb, someone seems to have a great positive influence on your grumpy mood! I believe there is a noble man around you?_"_

"Even if I were in Australia you still would believe that I'm at Howenstow, wouldn't you. By the way, it's a nice view from up here." Barbara said grinning, knowing that Winston knew that Howenstow stood on a small mound. But in fact she meant the horse because for an Icelandic horse Olafur was huge. "I can understand why one likes to sit on horses. Better overview on the infantry."

Barbara addressed her grin to Thomas who rolled his eyes for that comment. _She'll never stop it._ he thought.

On the other end Winston laughed. _"You'll leave the CID 'n' join the mounted police?"_

"Never!" Barbara said and listened to Winston's stories about the After-Christmas-party in their usual pub.

* * *

After a few moments Thomas gave her the reins which she absentmindedly took. "Keep still." he ordered. With the help of the fence Thomas climbed the horse behind her.

"It's not the overview - it's just easier to guide from here." he whispered with a gentle gnaw at her neck.

Thomas took over the reins and the horse walked again.

Barbara felt a little uneasy and looked around if anybody was watching them. She did not listen anymore to Winston's story, the man in her back was far too physically present.

"Winnie?" she interrupted Nkata's story. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we talk when I'm back? At the moment I'm a bit..."

_"I see. You're too distracted." _he laughed._  
_

Barbara laughed._ You can tell! _"I really _am_. Guess what, I really _do_ sit on a horse. On a giant of a horse! See you in five days then?"

_"Happy New Year, Barb."_ Winston's grin was audible. _"You owe me a story. And next time you're not allowed anymore to answer evasively."_

_After all he is a detective. _Barbara thought. "Oh, bugger off!" she grinned. "Happy New Year, Winnie!"

* * *

They disconnected and after Barbara had put the mobile back into her pocket Thomas forced the horse into a slow trot.

"Oh, help, Thomas! Sto-ho-ho-hop!" Barbara laughed and gripped into the bushy mane, fighting with her balance.

Thomas took the reins in one hand and firmly girded her waist. She stiffened.

"Thomas, you really shouldn't do this. Somebody might watch us." Barbara scolded him. "Aaaah! And stop that hoooorse!" she cried out when Olafur quickened even more.

"I am the Lord, I do whatever I wish. And if I wish to take my Lady for a ride then I do so." he chuckled. The riding movements with Barbara in front of him, her thighs against his, her bum into his lap, made him think of everything else but _horse_ riding.

"You know how bloody arrogant 'n' priggish that sounds?" Barbara ranted. "You Lordships do _not_ hold every bloody privilege nowadays."

Thomas sighed and slowed the horse into walk. "Barbara it was a joke! You know I'd never - "

"Mind your words, your Lordship, I might be dizzy with your smell clouding my mind but I'm still willing to fight you."

Thomas finally stopped Olafur.

"Dizzy?" he asked. "Is that so?" He let go of the reins and placed both his hands on her waist. "Wha' kin'o'smell d'you mean?" He started to kiss her neck and mumbled into her hair.

"_I_ am _not_ willing to fight, my love." he whispered onto the sensitive spot behind her ear.

"Hmmm." She inhaled the smell of leather, sweat, hay, horses ... Thomas ... It suddenly all seemed so easy again - once more reality was far away in some dusty distance. She closed her eyes and eventually turned her head to kiss his lips.

Unaffected by what was going on on his back and freed from the guidance of the reins Olafur started to graze on the side of the arena. The snogging couple did not even realise that it had started to drizzle. Thomas' hands softly kneaded her breasts and he ground his lower parts into her back while she arched into him.

"We should stop that, Thomas." Barbara whispered breathing heavily after a while. "Now!" This was definitely going to get too hot.

When she bent over the horse's neck to put some distance between their bodies she involuntarily pushed her bottom tighter onto his hips and Thomas inhaled sharply.

"You're evil, Barbara!" With a slight pressure his knuckles slid down her spine. "Oh, I know, one day we'll ride to our private banks of the creek and repeat this without clothing." he moaned pulling her hips into his lap again. "And without that bloody rain."

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	4. Talk

**Talk**

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**7...**

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Thomas jumped off the horse and helped Barbara to descend while he touched her as much as possible.

She giggled. "You're unbelievable! Stop that!" In fact she enjoyed it.

After he kissed her a last time fervently pressing her into the fence leaving them both breathless he put the saddle loosely onto the horse's back and they walked hand in hand to the stables. Barbara still felt observed but Collins, the stableman, was busy inside and surely had no time to watch his Lordship snogging.

When he saw them coming into the stables he turned in their direction and Thomas introduced them having his arm around her shoulder. Barbara smiled but also felt like giving paw. She managed to exchange some polite words with Collins.

* * *

"You can be quite eloquent, Sweetie." Thomas grinned. "I couldn't see any difficulties for you this evening."

They had brought Olafur back to his bay where Thomas finished rubbing the horse dry.

"It's quite easy when you are on the same social level." Barbara flatly said.

"Oh, not that again, Barbara." Thomas sighed. They stood in front of the bay with the open window between them while they were feeding Olafur with some carrots and oats. Thomas asked her to please put her unnecessary fears aside in the evening, her concerns and whatever she always was dreading. There would be more Lords and Ladies to face in the evening but they all were nice and friendly people - except a few of course who _had_ to be invited due to family social constraints and of whom he already had told her.

"After all it _is_ a social event in the manor." Thomas said apologetically. In trying to appease Barbara he told her about former parties he, Judith or Peter had thrown, talked about the estate and the manor and went on speaking about how he loved the land where he grew up. How it always steadies him or calms him when he is fed up with the Met, London or bad times in general. Meanwhile they fondled Olafur between them.

"Indeed it's beautiful." Barbara agreed. She thought about the view she enjoyed on her run. And her concerns.

"One day we'll return here." Thomas said dreamily and ruffled through the bushy mane of the horse. "I don't want to spend my life with chasing criminals until I'm _too_ old. It's not that I don't like to work at the Met but one day I will return, run the estate - mother is not getting younger too... I want to see my children grow up here in Cornwall. In that wonderful land where _I_ had been grown up."

_There you are!_ Barbara thought. _After all it _is_ his home county..._

"I love the city of London." she interjected silently. "I grew up there." Her inner fight from her run came to her mind again.

Thomas winked. "Oh, that's easy - we could partly live here and partly in London."

Barbara drew a deep breath. "I actually don't see me as the lady of the manor and rural mother of five, Thomas."

Thomas' heart cringed. _Now what does she mean with that again?_ "But -"

"I'm serious." She cut him short but said nothing more. _How could I tell him about it all?_

Thomas swallowed and saw how earnestly concerned Barbara looked. She kept her eyes on Olafur. She could not watch Thomas for the fear of drowning in his dark eyes and forgetting herself again.

Thomas' mind raced. He loves her, he had told her. He had shown it several times in St. Ives. He knew that his love for her was the deepest he ever had felt on so many levels. Of course he will not ever let her go again because she surely loves him too. Though she never said it. But he felt it. She is his counterpart. She is his dream come true.

_It _is_ mutual! _he thought.

"All this is just a dream." Barbara stated. _And in two days we both wake up._

"Indeed it is, Barbara. And I'm willing to transform it into reality."

Barbara snorted. "I doubt that it's possible." Her voice was flat and sounded exhausted. Thomas felt a panic rising in his throat and watched her still looking at his horse. He could literally see the brick wall she erected between them.

"But we... It's... Everything is possible when..." Thomas Lynley, Earl of Asherton, was searching for the right words. "I love you!" He nearly whined.

"Oh, god, Thomas..." Barbara rolleyed her eyes. _As if this is what I would doubt._

"I'm serious, too, Barbara. Let's work out together that this dream becomes reality." _Oh, hell, this is so hackneyed._

Barbara, now looking into the hay, really doubted that. Eton against Acton, Cornwall against London, Lord against working class girl - it's all too different, worlds apart. She kept silent, she really did not know how to talk about her fears.

"I love you." Thomas repeated and waited for her reaction. He dared not to touch her though he desperately just wanted to pull her into his arms and simply kiss her doubts away. "Trust me!"

Barbara grumbled in response. "You know I do, but.."

"Then trust _us_! Just trust in this relationship!" His voice sounded very desperate.

* * *

Olafur now realized there surely won't be any more carrots for him and so he decided to have a look up and down the alley between the bays if there is something more interesting than those two humans exchanging awkward sounds in a language he did not understand. Maybe he could have a little chat with the racy mare from across the alley about what kind of hot stuff had been going on today on his back when his Master and the little Miss had stopped riding him through the arena and did not talk as much as they were doing now. He made a step forward and put his long neck between them.

* * *

_Oh, you bloody horse!_ Thomas leant with his shoulder onto the stable door and stared onto the bushy mane, suddenly not really knowing what he should do with that beloved stubborn and fearful woman on the other side. Not really knowing how he could convince her of a shared future. _Is she really backing off after all their lovely times in St. Ives?_

She leant her back against the door and silently remained in thoughts. She did not move around Olafur's head though she wished she could.

She knew that it was her own fault that she was facing the wall between them again. She had put it up again with her serious concerns. _And at the best possible moment with the party ahead, you idiot._ she scolded herself.

_Just please come around that stupid horse, Barbara, and smile at me. I'm here. I don't know how I could convince you. _"You are all I want, Barbara. I want the future to be _ours_. I don't know how to tell you without scaring you. I _am_ a bloody Earl, yes. I _am_ rich, yes. I have horses, an expensive old car, an estate with a manor probably as huge as all the flats you've ever lived in together -"

"Even huger." Barbara answered watching the horse on the other side of the alley.

Thomas startled. He had not realised that he had said the last sentences aloud.

"Umm..." He started to sweat. _What the heck is she expecting now? What should I tell her?_ Without seeing her reactions he was slightly unsure of his words, unsure if he expressed himself sufficiently. He fidgeted with the knots in the mane and bumped his head against Olafur's neck.

"Oh, Barbara." he said quietly. "You know that we've been dancing around each other for quite some time now. We've spent so much time together. We trust each other with our lives in the line of duty. We've become friends a long time ago, we're lovers now. Everyone in my family says it was about time. Looking back, I think they're right - we've wasted too much time. I desperately _want_ to speed up now, Barbara. And I know that this is frightening you so I try to curb me. I try to keep me back from simply dragging you with me. I am _so_ happy. When we were in St. Ives, you know, when we talked about moving in, I was serious. I meant it. I thought you were serious, too. I..." he inhaled.

_I shouldn't tell her that I want to marry her right away!_ Judith's words came to his mind. _Don't speed up, Tommy!_

"You're the reason I get up in the morning, remember? You're the reason why I believe again that there is good in the world, that there are not just dark sides and pain and grief or endless fear. You're the reason I am _happy_ again. You're the reason I believe in love, Barbara. I don't mind what they might think about us. I give a f*** to what my lot might think because I just want to be with _you_, spend the rest of my life with _you_. And yes, it implicates children. And yes, it implicates that I want to marry you -"

Thomas bit his tongue._ Oh, hell, you wanted to not let that come up for discussion, you bloody idiot!_

Barbara's heart missed a beat and Thomas quickly spoke on. "Right now I'd like to order a helicopter and fly you to Gretna." He sighed. "This is absurd, ridiculous, I know, but this is how I feel." He managed something like a reassuring chuckle. "Such thoughts do naturally come along with the thoughts of a future with the person you love. And I _do_ think of our future. Don't say you don't, because we've already talked about it in St. Ives. I want to spend my future in company with you. I don't know what that future will bring, I don't know what lies ahead of us but I _do_ know for sure that I don't want to loose you. I have just _found_ you, just have found out what it was I've been missing in my life for far too long. You."

He sighed. "I want _you_ in my life. I want to be in your life, too, Barbara. I want to put our crazy different worlds together into a new one. It really isn't impossible. It's... You love me, don't you?"

Barbara nodded though he could not see it. Without waiting for an answer he went on.

"And I love you. I love how you behave, I love your witty remarks and your snorts, I love your blushes and your shy smiles and your cheeky answers - I love who you are. Without your social background you weren't the same like I weren't me without mine. I am a Lord from the cradle to the grave, but, for heaven's sake, who cares? And..." Thomas stopped and again searched for words. "Well! I love you." He grumbled that. "I don't know what more could I say. I'm running out of words that make sense and feel like I go round in circles. Can't you please say something, anything, Barbara? I feel like a fool when I'm talking to the knots in Olafur's mane."

Barbara smiled but still kept silent and continued to stare at the horse on the other side. Oh, yes, she loved him. And yes, even if he was a Lord. And yes, he was right, probably it could work. But still...

_I am scared! I am so bloody scared! _Barbara felt tears coming up._  
_

Thomas silently went on with his speech. "You're driving me crazy, Barbara. In a positive way you're making me mad. You pushed me into a new world of emotions since you've responsed to that kiss in my office. And since you've agreed to come with me to Howenstow at Christmas I'm in a psychic turmoil of epic dimensions. You've made my world spinning faster." Thomas also nearly started crying and was angry with himself because he found his own words so stupidly stale.

"And you keep me orating more crazy stupidities if you keep silent. Now could you please come around that ignorant horse between us and show me that my long stupid monologue had some effect on you? Take me in your arms or just smile at me so I know that I'm not totally wrong? That there is even the slightest chance to convince you that we could climb a bulldozer together and drag those f***ing social walls that you tend to built up in front of you again and again into some neat piles?"

Barbara laughed. _But still..._ she thought. _Oh, yes, I love him and maybe it _could_ work, but still..._

Hearing her laughing took a load off Thomas' mind.

"This is what I want to hear." he breathed. "Now - oh, hello..."

Barbara had come around the horse's head and now stood in front of Thomas. He turned and leant his back against the bay door. He smiled sheepishly and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his breeches or else he would have pulled her straight into his arms.

_It's your turn now, Barbara. Please tell me that I'm not all wrong._ He felt slightly awkward.

"Hi." Barbara whispered. Her eyes were shimmering with dammed up tears. She deeply inhaled.

"I am so bloody scared, Thomas." she whispered hoarsely. "This is all so... different. I can't take it all in, it all goes so fast."

_W_e _have... _I_ have so much to loose if this won't work._ She sighed. "I am so scared."

"I'm here, Barbara." Thomas croaked. Her tears finally fell and Thomas held out a hand. Barbara took it and he gently stroked the back of it with his thumb.

* * *

With the slightest pull at her hand she rushed into his arms and buried her face into his chest, her tears now silently running. For a little while they just stood there closely entangled, without a word, without a move. Just the two of them.

"You trust me like I trust you." Thomas whispered onto her hair and stroked her back. "We'll manage this, Barbara. I'll be there for you as long as you wish. At your side offering you my arm to walk together, a step behind your back when you want support and an arm's length in front of you when you need protection."

Barbara sobbed and he squeezed her continuing to whisper. "You don't need to be scared, like I'm not scared when I'm with you. And _you_ will please accept that I come from this posh and rich world and that I return to it from time to time and you will come with me from time to time and please stay out of your shell even when some of my lot is facing you. You don't have to become one of them. I absolutely don't want you to. Don't ever change but please trust in you and be the woman at my side. Aren't we looking into the same direction, Barbara? When we're back in London, back on solid ground and not here in dreamland Cornwall where _I_ have all advantages on my side, we'll sit and talk about all this in peace, ok?"

She nodded. Even though it was not voiced Thomas believed that she would try to get on with this, try to get over her concerns. He felt something had shifted.

After a while her tears had run dry and he held her at arm's length to look in her eyes.

"Feeling better?"

Barbara nodded again. "Feeling better." she croaked.

"Smile again?"

Barbara nodded and her lips curled into a shy smile.

"Sometimes you're acting so..."

"Weird?" she chuckled bashfully.

Thomas nodded and shrugged with a lopsided smile. "Yes. And then _I_ am so bloody scared that _I_ do or say something wrong and shoo you back into your shell." he whispered with a fearful face. "Am I allowed to kiss you now?"

Being stuck for an answer Barbara got up on her tiptoes and kissed him deeply.

"My a'th kar!" he whispered in Cornish.

* * *

They both knew that they still had to talk but Barbara felt like she had wings at her feet when they returned to the main house. She still was _bloody scared_ but something truly had shifted. Thomas' _long stupid monologue_ obviously managed to link her mind with her heart and squared her shoulders to face whatever there might come. In the end he was right that they both were what they were because of their social backgrounds - though she still did not see herself moving to Howenstow. But yes, she loved him. And yes, she believed that he'll be there for her. And yes, she thought that they could build a shared future. And yes, she would try to get over all her scaring concerns.

The upcoming party would be the crucial test for her new confidence.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**

* * *

**Author's note:** First (after their little ride) there was something totally different on my mind. I've just let me mind and fingers flow and couldn't get it turned into a snogging in the hay. ;-)

Unfortunately this _long_ _stupid_ _monologue_ showed me the limitations of my use of a foreign language *sigh* You wouldn't believe how long it took me to put a hint of sense in it...


	5. Prepare

**Author's important note: **Thanks for all your reviews, especially those on chapter 4!

* * *

**Prepare**

* * *

***Author giggles*** So, this is kind of remembering the hens day in St. Ives ;-)

* * *

**.**

* * *

**6...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Today with the party at the end of it they had no official lunch nor dinner with a fixed time. The buffet was laid out in the kitchen for quite a while for the early guests. The other guests were invited for the time of nine pm. Somewhere around five thirty Deborah and Simon arrived and all in all the day was a very lazy one. Somewhere in between the hours Thomas and Barbara took Dolly out for a walk to have some time alone again. They talked a bit about this and that and snuggled intensely wherever they felt unobserved.

The serious topic between them was fairly avoided but every time they came close to speaking about their relationship or the differences of their worlds they shared deep looks and deeper kisses. Thomas felt that she tried to adjust herself and come to terms with it but did not want to talk about it and Barbara knew he tried to keep the topic down for he just wanted her to accept it as normality. Though there still was something unspoken between them, something unsolved, something that they had procrastinated to be talked off when they would be back in London, both felt enormously relaxed and at ease. They knew that they will manage it somehow.

* * *

Around six Barbara and Thomas went upstairs and took another short shower. Thomas would have loved to have some more very private time with her before the guests arrive but with a questioning look from Thomas she had turned to leave the master bedroom in a bathrobe.

"See you at the party, Thomas. Judith and I will do some girly stuff. You know, some Prosecco, helping to dress, make the hair-do..." she winked, gave him a quick kiss and left a baffled Thomas behind.

He was bursting with curiosity and nearly went after her to see what kind of girly stuff Barbara and Judith would be doing.

* * *

In actual fact Judith first put a glass of Prosecco into Barbara's nervously trembling hand.

"I thought you might need this." she winked. "Cheers, Barbara! To a wonderful evening." They clinked their glasses.

Barbara's dress hung there on the open door of a wardrobe. She looked at it and shook her head.

"A part of me still couldn't believe it." she whispered and let her fingertips run over the silky green cloth. "It's time that this strange Cornish dream stops and we return to London..."

Judith laughed. "You won't back off, Barbara. London will come sooner than you would believe. Keep cool! And forget about Panny's silly comparison with bringing you out!"

"M-hm..." Barbara chewed on the inner side of her cheek.

"It's not your marriage and you also won't have to deliver a speech. This is just a party and you will not backpedal." Judith gave her an encouraging dig with her elbow.

"Mmm-hmmm..." Barbara was not totally convinced. Additionally the reference of "marriage" truly was not useful.

Then Judith took her in her arms. "You'll bring home the bacon, Barb. Don't be scared."

"Compared to me, Buddha had been a nervous wreck." Barbara awkwardly laughed.

"You won't be alone down there. As far as I know him Tommy will stay at your elbow the entire evening. Especially when he sees you in _this! dress!_ He will watch you like a mad watchdog. Now let's get started!"

* * *

Finally, and with the second Prosecco in her hands, Barbara was a little more calm. She had put on the dress and stood in front of the mirror. _Oh, bloody hell, I can't wear these new red strings._ With a distraught face towards Judith she pointed at her hips where every single string showed through.

Judith grinned and told her that with all the other drapes of the dress nobody would know that it is her underwear - except Tommy of course.

"And this just adds." she winked

"Adds what?"

"You knooow whaaat..." Judith rolled her eyes and laughed. Meanwhile she had put on her own short black and ruby satin dress and waited with a comb, a brush and Barbaras new fine clasps. "Now, let's pay attention to our hair, Barbara!"

"No. First I put on some other undergarments..."

Judith sighed. "Whatever you wish. I'd say it's fine. And I might add that a single string may bespeak more of its origin than those three..."

In the end Barbara did not change and Judith helped her pinning up her hair. After they also had finished Judith's up-do in the same way Judith went to a little jewellery box and took two nice tiny ear studs. She told Barbara that she had let them be cleaned professionally just in case Barbara would need some jewellery matching her emerald necklet. The studs were of her youth and the first she ever had.

"And to say it clear: I want them back! So you don't have to be embarrassed about another present." she winked. "What worries me is that you're not wearing a ring. Some of my... errm... some of the lot down there might come to their own cranky solutions about you and Tommy..."

Barbara tried to keep the ring and possible insinuations out of her mind. "Pffff... I'm happy without a ring, Judith."

_I'm sure of that._ Judith thought grinning. She patted Barbara on her shoulder. "I believe that. And I also believe that you are able to knock them down a peg. By the way, I also believe that it was about time that the wind of change is blowing through those dusty halls of Howenstow with you."

"What?" Barbara asked.

Judith chuckled in amusement. "You know what I mean. You're not only doing Tommy good, you also do this old house good."

"Judith, I - "

"I'm serious, Barbara. It would be nice to see you more often at the manor from now on." Judith winked.

_Please could we both skip that kind of topic?_ Barbara thought. "Oh, we have a job at London, I don't think - "

"Aaah, Barbara, believe me, you _will_ return and probably stay longer than you think. I don't think Tommy will raise his children in the city - "

"Judith!" Barbara yelled. "Stop it _here_! It's only two weeks ago that he confessed his love for me, just two weeks since I've allowed myself the mutual feeling. We've just come to a common understanding to work out this relationship, and I'm not yet talking about moving here nor am I talking about having children with Thomas. It's not yet time, and even when it is, _if_ it is, it's something between Thomas and me, understand?" Though her last words were spoken harshly her voice was slightly shivering. Barbara had realised that, after his monologue in the stable and whatever she was saying to Judith, she would in fact follow Thomas wherever he would go, even if it was hell itself.

Judith stood tall. She did not fail to hear Barbara's indirect confession. "I understand, but Barbara, it was years ago that you both fell in love with each other. No, don't deny that. You've spent most of those years together, closer than friends. Normal people, and you two are all but normal... " she winked. "...normal people would have taken that step far more earlier, so I think it is very much allowed to talk about the possibilities of your future even if it's only two weeks after your confession."

Judith and Barbara stood there staring at each other.

* * *

_I've told Tommy to keep things slow, because otherwise he would ask her to marry him as soon as possible and thus scare her away, but I think I have to tell _her_ the opposite._ Judith chuckled again. "I understand that it is none of my business and I agree. But you both love each other, Barbara, and lovers do think about their future. Talk with Tommy. In my opinion you both have wasted too much time."

_We have. _Barbara thought._ And Judith couldn't know that we have already started talking. Though we _still_ need to get so many things sorted. _But after all they had already fixed another serious talk and she definitively did not want to deepen this matter here and now._  
_

Barbara grizzled. "Judith, would you please -"

"Alright, Barbara, and that was enough serious talk for tonight. Now back to those studs. Put them on." Judith smiled.

"You're as stubborn as your brother, d'you know that?"

"Yes, I've been told so before." Judith laughed.

"Inquisitive nuisance." Barbara grinningly muttered.

She put the studs in and slipped into her new shoes. Then she took a deep breath and turned to the mirror.

"Bloody hell!" she cursed in disbelief. She was not sure if she had ever met the woman staring back at her. "Is that me?!"

Judith fought hard to laugh as less as possible. Sometimes Barbara sometimes was so unconfident and at the same time still acting so tough it was hard to believe.

"I could paint you, then nobody would know."

Barbara's eyes widened. "No make-up!" she defensively waved her hands.

* * *

In the end Judith could convince her of putting on some barely visible lip-gloss, some highlights at her eyes and a touch of rouge.

"I don't think it's necessary, Judith, I will probably blush the entire evening." Barbara commented it giggling.

Sitting there relaxing with Prosecco and the brushes and pads in her face Barbara more and more unbent. Judith finally was very pleased with her work - and that means not only the make-up. Barbara had become very relaxed during their preparation. They had talked and giggled about who-knows-what and their little serious digression did no harm to their cheerfulness.

Then Judith gave Barbara a little green pocket square. She told her that it was from Pan-Yong who had thought that the fabric remnants would be too good to dispose and he had made it for her to give it Tommy on this special evening. It would be a wonderful sign that they belong together.

"Though you're not wearing a ring everybody would recognize this green." Judith nodded affirmatively.

"So nobody would dare to lay a hand on me?" Barbara laughed. She also wondered if this green really is so extraordinary.

"For some colours, all the more if it is the colour of the hosting family, one needs a huge amount of self-confidence."

"Great, so who the hell chose this dress?"

"You."

Barbara mockingly scolded herself for being so silly.

"Barbara, you had known the emerald green before you chose this dress!" Judith laughed and raised her glass. _You knew very well what you've chosen._

"I didn't know what I was doing - I was distracted by all the fairy dust."

They laughed again when Daze knocked at the door and came in without an answer.

"Where in the world are you?!" she fumed. "It's already near nine, ladies. You couldn't stay -"

She stopped her tirade becoming aware of beautiful Barbara. She never had her seen dressed up this way. Noticing the glare from her daughter signing her to keep whatever she had wanted to say she turned her eyes away and instead admired both.

"My, you two look very nice." she smiled. "But now it's time to show it to an audience, don't you think? You couldn't stay the entire evening in your room and drink Prosecco on your own. And Judith, please don't make a show of it! Behave _normal_! We simply go downstairs and get ourselves an official glass of something. Albert is waiting eagerly to get himself boozed. Now, I think you wouldn't mind to follow me." With that she nodded, turned and left without closing the door.

Barbara and Judith followed.

"She's always nervous at New Year's Eve, don't mind that!" Judith winked and stopped Barbara's marvelling thoughts with a wave of her hand.

"Chop-chop, young ladies!" Daze already was three steps down, Judith followed hot on her heels but when Barbara had noticed that the strap of her shoe was twisted she had to adjust it. Thus she hopped four steps behind them.

"Nooo, don't leave me behind!" she whispered desperately.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	6. BOOM

**BOOM**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**5...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

"Don't leave me behind," Barbara whispered. "I don't wanna go down alone."

Judith and Daze were already halfway down the stairs. Barbara cursed under her breath.

"Oh, bloody hell..."

* * *

Thomas had been wondering what the girls were doing all the time. He thought they would be downstairs at about half past eight at the latest and now it was nearly nine. He had always thought that Barbara was a get-dressed-get-going-girl, no preparations, no extravagant hair-do. _But wasn't she lately pinning up her hair different to that usual ponytail? _he mused._ And I wonder so much about that... well it _must_ be a dress. Or rather some kind of trouser suit._ He could not remember when he last saw his Sergeant Havers in a dress or a skirt but he could very well remember his unmannerly thoughts when he last time saw her on her way to a court appearance in that black suit with a creamy blouse underneath - where the button border was absolutely _not_ going up to her neck. He forgot himself in fantasizing what Barbara might wear tonight, she and Judith had made quite a secret about it.

* * *

Eventually he saw his mother rushing up the stairs at about five minutes to nine and so he lingered about in the hallway. He spotted a gaudy coloured toy from his mother's dog. _Must be forgotten. Or Dolly brought it back._ Thomas bent down and took it. He turned to bring it into the glass house where Dolly had her space during those occasions when his mother appeared at the second landing of the stairs.

"Oh, wait, Tommy, the girls had finally finished their private party. We can go altogether."

Thomas saw her coming down the stairs in her high-necked black cocktail dress with her favourite pearl necklace with a green jewel. Right behind her he spotted his sister Judith in something very much more low-cut and shorter in dark ruby and black satin. Behind her he could hear Barbara's voice whispering something he did not understand. He could just tell that she cursed again which made him chuckle.

_Here come my three ladies._ Thomas thought smiling and turned to the little table to put away the toy. His eyes though were distracted by the person now emerging on the second landing.

* * *

First he saw her feet. Never had he seen such footwear on his sergeant. Well, actually he had never been on an event like this with her. The shoes were of silky black lace, had an open toe, a small sparkling brooch, low sides, ankle straps, 2,5 inches high heesl -

_High heels, oh my... _Thomas slowed his motion.

His gaze grazed her ankles, her calves - _Hmmm, it _is_ a dress!_ \- her knees -

_Wow, that is short!_ Thomas froze on the spot, the dog's toy in his hand hovering mid-air above the small table.

The hem of the dark green skirt was just above her knees. The shiny cloth was ruffled with a sparkling applique on the left of her swaying hips. On the right side the cloth of the sheath skirt stretched smoothly tight over her tiny soft hip padding where Thomas knew of a little reptile. Three lines were displayed there -

_...the three strings!_ The world around Thomas stood still.

The bodice above her waist was tight but slack enough that it folds in the rhythm of Barbara's movements. And it strained over her upper curves -

_...holy!_ Thomas pupils dilated.

The tight cloth accented them exactly at the right places. Her cleavage was covered decently enough and yet he could guess her bosom. The slightly diagonal neckline -

_...reveals more skin than I've ever seen of her in public!_ Thomas placed the toy and it fell past the table to where he had picked it up some moments ago.

He did not recognize it at all.

Instead he recognized both of her collarbones showing and hiding under her skin while Barbara carefully came down the stairs, her right hand on the handrail. Her right shoulder was graced with a loose shawl-like covering that waved in the slow walking. It appeared to be -

_...sliding down in an instant and show the white skin of her shoulder with the lovebite I left there last night._ Thomas swallowed hard.

The other shoulder remained bare. Between them he could tell from the blinking he saw that she was wearing the necklet with the green gem he had given her.

_...my precious Emerald!_ Thomas beamed up to Barbara's face.

Her hair was pinned up tightly in the back of her neck. No girlish pony-tail bounced from one side to the other and no loose strand of hair fell carelessly into her face. It was clearly visible that her skin was blushed. She held her eyes fixed to the ground, she chew on her inner cheek, she was -

_...so sexy when she's nervous._ Thomas blinked and took a deep breath. _She drives me crazy! Oh, that's for sure - one day I _am_ going to marry that woman!_

He cleared his throat and blinked again.

* * *

.

* * *

_Mmm, there is Thomas._ Barbara looked up. _Gosh_,_ he always looks so gorgeous in his dark suits. Tall and dark in his very lordish sexy frock-coat. So dishy! _

_Oy, mind the steps, Barb! _She cursed inwardly about those bloody unfamiliar shoes which she swore to never wear again...

_He's so... handsome... and he has lost most of his tummy to the work outs. _Her eyes wandered up across his broad chest, where she knew of his slightly greyed hair, and further to his square shoulders. Once again Barbara grabbed his biceps with her eyes.

By the thought of it she could not help tightening her grip on the handrail.

__He could come and help me steady myself on these silly steep steps.__

She looked up to his face, lost her thoughts on his lips and finally became aware of his grazing grace. His eyes made her knees weak.__  
__

_Oh, bloody hell, he is staring at me like he's going to eat me alive._ Barbara blushed and knew that she had to walk on. Fixing her eyes to the ground she bit her inner cheek._ If it just wouldn't be a stair I had to manage with those f***ing high heels... it would be far more easier to simply _walk_ up to him._

_Holy, it's just one more step and you're down, Barb. Get the hell on with this, you're a grown up girl. Keep your head up and look in his eyes. Steady on!_

* * *

"Hello." Barbara whispered nervously. Thomas just looked down to her. He still was paralysed by her sight.

Without a word Barbara poked the little green pocket square into the breast pocket of Thomas' frock-coat replacing the white one. Still being observed by his adoring eyes she twitched it smooth and as he still kept silent she pulled an imaginary piece of lint from his in fact clean black shoulder.

The flash of a memory of scratches shot through her head.

Barbara's gaze shifted from his softly smiling mouth to his fondling stare.

Thomas' eyes alternated between her sparkling eyes and her glossy lips.

The flash of a memory of her moistening tongue shot through his head.

* * *

They stood inches apart. Electricity sizzled.

* * *

"Need some?" Smugly grinning Judith offered him a glass of water. The tinkling of the ice cubes jolted Thomas back into reality.

"Bugger off!" he growled and bent down to kiss Barbara passionately. His arms wound around her chest. He touched her very bare left bladebone in her back with the spread fingers of one hand and let his other fingertips slide down the line of the back zip to her lower back.

"I don't know how I will survive this evening!" he croaked onto her lips after they broke the kiss to gasp for air.

"So you like it?" she breathed.

"You bet!" He was grinning broadly and started to kiss her again.

* * *

"I hardly like to interrupt you," an enervated moan of annoyance escaped his mother's mouth when she returned to the hallway to collect her children. "but could we _please_ stay together? I don't want to declare the party open on my own again. Albert already waits at the bar... Peter! Would you mind joining us?! My, god, it's worse than herd cats!" She rolled her eyes.

"Always nervous, I told you!" Judith said.

Thomas took Barbara's hand in his own, intertwined their fingers and squeezed them reassuringly.

"Don't be nervous, my love." he said low. "We just appear together as a family and get ourselves a drink at the bar. That's all. No great declaration, mother is overacting as usual." Thomas winked while Daze ushered her eldest son to lead the group into the great front hallway.

"I'm at your side." Thomas whispered into Barbara's ear.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	7. Clash

**Clash**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**4...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Whatever Thomas had said earlier was forgotten now. Barbara would have loved the ground to open itself and swallow her up.

_Everybody is staring at me._ she thought and cemented something like a shy smile in her face. _This is ridiculous! I should better be somewhere in a pub celebrating with grounded folks, with normal people! Instead I'm in the middle of this upperclass nightmare. I never should have agreed on this...  
_

She tightened her grip on Thomas' hand.

In fact they were not staring at all.

Albert just stood at the bar flirting with the poor bartender who was glad that she finally was allowed to busy herself with her job. The family members all took a drink and splitted up again, greeting and chatting here and there. In the great hall where the small string ensemble with piano already played Frederick and his dear friend George were both playfully flirting with the poor innocent aunt Augusta. Across the space in the middle which would serve as a dancefloor later uncle Herman and Thomas' cousin James seemed to be already deep in their farming topics.

Six or seven other guests that Barbara had not yet met were already there. They were looking unobtrusively curious but not offending. Thomas greeted them with a smile or a nod. He looked around. At first he needed to get Barbara to some familiar faces to start the party and the official greetings. He did not want to make her feel shown around. Later there would be enough people he thought he had to welcome with her at his side to introduce them but for now he would like to have some easy and well known friends around her.

Her silent sigh of relief told Thomas that she had found Deborah and Simon. She instinctively moved into their direction.

_Nice familiar faces!_ she thought relieved and her smile was genuine. She nearly waved at them.

Thomas could tell from the loosening grip on his hand that Barbara relaxed in their presence. His plan seemed to work out.

* * *

Of course Barbara was introduced to some distant family members or friends during the first hour of the party. And of course there were some nosy ones who tried to interrogate her, tried to winkle out more facts about their relationship or just about herself. It was obvious that Barbara was not "one of them" or one of the upper class. From her appearance in that dress or by her carefully chosen few words one could not tell but there was still her accent that bespoke her origin.

Some of the guests, Thomas called them _the Ulysses faction_, even dwelled on their working partnership, implicating between the lines or barely hidden in so called jokes that it might be a master and servant relation, simple obedience or the chance for Barbara to get promoted. She came through with that as Thomas always stayed at her side and did not leave her while she answered their partly very snoopy questions politely but short and tried to say between the lines that this was none of _their_ businesses.

Though Thomas had to leave her from time to time, getting a drink or being withdrawn by other guests commanding attention, he always rushed back and was at her elbow to assist her when he noticed she was running out of nice evasive answers or spicy remarks. After a while Barbara even forgot her fancy dress, though she stayed very unfamiliar with the shoes.

* * *

Finally - and much later than she had expected - uncle Ulysses made his way to Barbara. Along with other guests they had been shortly introduced to each other earlier, jovial as his "good old uncle Ulysses" and silken as his "lovely Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers", her private position at Thomas' side made clear with a gentle kiss onto her temple and his hand slightly touching her bare shoulder. It was obvious during all the time that they were not just colleagues and Thomas had seen in Ulysses' eyes that he badly wanted to know more about Barbara. He knew that Ulysses only would wait for an unguarded moment when he would be able to catch her alone so Thomas kept an eye on his uncle.

Standing in some distance talking with Deborah and Simon Thomas saw him appearing at her side. Barbara stood all alone at the bar, waiting for a drink. Thomas turned to walk up to her in order to assist in handling Ulysses.

Out of nowhere Daze put a hand on his arm. "Wait!" she said softly.

Thomas startled and stopped in his motion. "What?"

"I said wait, Tommy. I think she'll handle him. You couldn't always fly to her side when Barbara is confronted with someone like that old scourge, excuse my choice of words. You still could go and intervene if Ulysses is getting too obtrusive or if Barbara wouldn't be able to show him that she might be the next Lady Asherton." Without blinking and with the most innocent face she was capable of putting on she sipped at her gin and tonic.

Thomas was baffled.

"What?!" he fumed with furrowed brow. _Couldn't she just have kept _that_ back? We're trying to avoid that topic and she speaks it out as if it was the most normal thing in the world. If she repeats some of this when Barbara is near I'm going to -  
_

Simon gave him a heavy pat on the back. "Stay cool, Tommy, we men are always the last ones to know things like that." He winked.

Deborah turned her head away to hide her grinning.

"Oh you bloody intruders, that's none of... Aaaah - hold your tongues! All of you." Thomas downed his Whisky in one gulp, turned and kept tabs on uncle Ulysses.

They were within earshot.

* * *

Ulysses appeared at the bar next to Barbara when she was on her own. Sure he had watched and waited for that opportunity.

"Miss err... Havers? That's right, isn't it?" He started and came straight to the point. "So, I've come to know that you are the actual little Miss to the Earl of Asherton?"

By the tone in his voice Barbara was well aware of his poorly hidden insinuation that she would simply be Thomas' current love affair.

_Oh, you want a piece of me? You'll get it._ She straightened her back and put on a sugary simper. Thomas had told her enough about Ulysses and his "hobby" to put down less-nobled so she was warned and prepared.

"If ya mean to imply that I'm the new _woman_ at Thomas' side," she answered affectively polite but in her best Acton streets accent. "then I can answer your unsuccessful attempt of a humorous question with a _yes_. A long-established Lady of Acton, London, if you don't mind me to jest likewise..."

Ulysses draw breath to answer but Barbara continued with an innocent look through her eye-lashes. _Everything you can do I can do better..._

"Oh, sorry, and you were...?" In fact she exactly had not forgotten that this was uncle Ulysses, cousin of Thomas' father, as old as the hills. But the borders were made clear with those few words exchanged. Her voice had shown him that she actually knew who he was.

Ulysses, defeated by his own social guidelines, had no choice but to introduce himself again.

"I've learned that you are his sergeant, Miss Havers?" he made a second attempt to catch her off guard. "And now you're also partnered in private?"

"Well, we trust each other with our lifes in the line of duty and could always rely on each other. We are looking in the same direction. What could be a stronger foundation for a private partnership than this? Even when unrestricted love came its way as well?"

_Where did that come from?_ she was astonished at her own courage to speak so frankly with that old noble man. _Must be because Thomas told me about Ulysses' inquisitions before. They were to be expected.  
_

If Barbara had irritated him he tried not to show it. She could tell anyway by his narrowing eyes, his gritted teeth and the following short and meaningless smalltalk about the weather - _How clichéd!_ \- that he quickly had learned that he would not get through her armour. He kept the constrained dialogue up until he could formally excuse himself when Barbara got her drink. Obviously he had to rush to someone of his own "special lot" to tell of her unmannerly behaviour.

Barbara literally heaved a sigh of relief and looked around in search for Thomas.

* * *

She found him standing with his mother, Judith and the St. James's, all watching her, all grinning their approval. Daze had to hide herself behind her cocktail again.

Barbara shrugged and joined them.

"What?!" she asked. "...somethin' wrong?"

Judith chuckled and laid her hand onto Deborah's arm. "I was about to call for an ambulance when he stopped breathing at your first remark."

Deborah laughed and mimicked Barbara. "_Oh, sorry, and you were...?_"

"The old man was close to a serious heart attack." Simon raised his glass.

Barbara blushed. "Great! Seems I got it about right." she said ironically.

"I'm very proud of you, _my little Miss_." Thomas grinned and gave her a breeze of a kiss on the hand.

"I especially loved the part with trust and unrestricted love." he whispered into her ear.

* * *

"Dance with me?" he asked challenging.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	8. Dance

**Dance**

* * *

***author smugly grins***

* * *

**.**

* * *

**3...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Thomas had given her another kiss on the hand.

* * *

"Dance with me!" It was a cordial order now.

Barbara backed off. "No. Thomas, no, I've told you I wouldn't dance." she whined.

"Yes, but I've already danced with everyone but you." He did not. In fact he just had been forced to dance by his niece who mucked around with him and Peter.

"You didn't dance but once. And that doesn't count because Stephanie dragged you and you've escaped seconds - "

"Oh, keep it, Barbara." Thomas grabbed her hand with a laugh and dragged her onto the dance floor.

"I can't!" she hissed.

"You know, we _men_ lead. Just relax, just feel, just follow!" he said twirling her around with a happy grin. Then he pulled her into his arms and they softly swayed to the music.

* * *

"Would you prefer something faster? A tango perhaps?" he whispered into her ear, brushing her auricle with his lips. He knew she always gets weak knees under this special touch. "I am the bloody Lord, I could even make them play heavy metal, if you wish." he chuckled.

Barbara grinned. "Shut up, you arrogant..." Thomas just grasped her closer. "He! Keep some distance, Thomas, please! They all are watching."

Thomas laughed and halfheartedly tried to convince her that nobody was interested in the dancing couples, not even in them, but nonetheless he held her a bit more away from his body.

It turned out that they could dance quite good together even if her last dance must have been about fifteen or twenty years ago. They found their rhythm quickly. Thomas was a good dancer and led her gently but firmly. They cohered and Barbara felt extraordinary well in his arms.

"You know what?" he asked smiling with his gaze somewhere in the distance. "I love that one can see that little beauty spot between your arm and your left..." he paused. "...chest. The whole evening I'd wanted to kiss it. What about we steal away and snog in the music room?"

Barbara blushed.

"On the settee..." he added and put on a mockingly innocent face.

"Thomas, please." she whispered and kept her own eyes fixed on Thomas' shoulder.

During the dance his hand slid down to the small of her back and nearly landed on her bum.

"Thomas, your hand is _not_ where it should be."

"Yes."

* * *

The song ended and as if the music ensemble had heard his Lordship the next jazzy song they played was a slightly sped up slow fox with a hint of happy tangoish touch so Thomas did not let her escape from the dancefloor. Barbara would not have expected it but she enjoyed this couple dance so very much that she did not reject nor made any accelerated effort to leave the dancefloor.

"I've never liked dancing, but it actually feels good with you." she admitted silently.

"Oh, it feels more than good." He twirled her around, supported her back and with a soft push at her shoulder he slightly but energetically tilted her backwards. Barbara nearly shrieked.

With both hands in her back - no more closed position - he pulled her back to his chest and grinned smugly.

"Hmmm!" he said. "I love that dance."

"Thomas, we shouldn't dance like this." she breathed. "They - "

"Oh, shut up and let them watch! Concentrate on us!" His face was inches apart from hers and she could feel his breath on her lips but he kept the tension up by not kissing her. "Feel us!"

His left hand stroked from her right shoulder down her arm and took her hand again. Then he stretched out their arms until they were in something like proper dancing stance again.

"Remember last night!" he whispered and intertwined their fingers. In the next second Barbara felt herself being pushed backwards with his hips.

* * *

They dance quite good together, don't they." Deborah and Judith watched them hover round the dancefloor.

"You sure that they dance?!" Judith grinned.

* * *

The air around them was intoxicatingly sweet. Though they were surrounded by other dancing couples they had been drifting away into their private universe.

Thomas had pushed her backwards but did not follow and now held her with both hands at arm's length for one beat, then he pulled at her hands and Barbara had to make a step forward again. She was nearly crashing into his chest. Thomas had turned himself somewhat so he was with one thigh between her legs and pressed his chest against her upper body. With just a movement of his chest he turned her slightly away from their intertwined legs.

Barbara could not steady herself other than clinging onto his right biceps. Her left leg was somewhat wound around his and she had full contact to his right thigh. He had a dark leecherous look when he turned her even more around himself and swayed back and forth, causing friction with his thigh. Between them there was no space for a sheet of paper. Barbara intensely could feel him pressing against her.

"Gosh, Thomas, I..."

"Mmmh. I've always wanted to make love to you on a dancefloor." he whispered growling into her ear.

The distance between them really was not worth its name. They made some strides across the floor and Thomas once more pushed her away from him to spin her around and back into his strong arms. They held their position for some heartbeats which now seemed to throb in the rhythm of the music. Barbara clung to his upper arms and they stared deeply into each other's eyes while Thomas secretly let his fingertips slide across the three little strings that showed through the satin over her hips.

The warmth radiating from his body onto hers and her rising temperature made it so hot around them one could have lit a candle at the distance of a yard.

With every turn they took, with every throb their thighs experienced Barbara's ache for his body went higher. She was totally lost in his arms and felt goose pimples all over her skin. Her lower body responded to his closeness with a tickling warmth. Never would she have thought that dancing could be like this. Even though she was fairly out of practice she could instinctively follow his firm lead. His hips, his chest, his arms, his thighs guided her where he wanted her to be and made her feel the music in her bones. Once she even dared to make some sassy steps in front of Thomas with him standing still.

"You didn't learn this at the dancing school, did you." he silently teased her.

"Oh, I don't think the way you guide me isn't taught at your public school's processional dance class either, your Lordship." she saucily grinned.

While their leading hands were intertwined again and the arm bent where it should be for casual dancing their other arms and hands played unproperly around.

Barbara had her left arm wound around his shoulder and dug her fingers into the hair in the back of his head.

The electrical sizzling looks they exchanged sparkled with more than a billion volts.

Thomas was aware of every fibre of his body desiring hers. His right arm was wound around her upper body so his hand could touch the bare skin in her back. Once more he let his fingers trail down the line of the zipper, breaking for three beats on the small of her back but only stopping when he could rest his full hand with spread fingers onto her bum.

Everyone who watched this could see his fingers taking a gentle yet firm grip into her soft cheek.

Barbara hissed and her eyes widened.

_Mine!_ he thought smugly grinning.

"You're possessive, Sir!" she whispered merely audible but highly pleased with the feeling on her bottom.

"I am!" Thomas lowly growled.

* * *

He spun her around again and turned her in one more half rotation so he ended the move standing in her back. Her right arm laid across her belly and was held in place with his hand on her left hip. Barbara was breathlessly trapped in his arms. She lifted her left hand to his neck.

Thomas' right hand laid flatly on the side of her upper chest, holding Barbara in this position. His thumb graced the side of her breast precariously close to the soft spot.

"Oh, my..." she sighed. Under the loose emerald satin there luckily nobody could see her excited bud.

Barbara felt his heaving chest in her back while his loin pressed into her back with its important part right between her bum cheeks. This had not been unintentional. Thomas had wanted to make it perfectly clear what he was feeling. And he let her feel it too. The whispered kiss onto her left bare shoulder sent her shivers up and down the spine. Her flushing skin must have been obvious to everyone.

* * *

Barbara was not sure if she could have kept herself pulled together if the song would have lasted two more beats so she was vastly glad it had stopped and Thomas had turned her again to stand face to face. He made a step backwards to grace the inner wrist of her hand with another light kiss.

Barbara was stimulated to the bone and beamed.

_Bloody hell, I wish he'd push me up against the next wall and kiss me senseless. We've made a show anyway.  
_

After their dance Thomas headed for the exit. There was nothing but hiding out and snogging in his mind.

_I'll push her up against the next private doorframe..._

Barbara felt certain that, even if they had not until now, _everybody_ was strictly observing them leaving the dancefloor and so she better stopped at the group of his family members with a shy smile. In her opinion there really was no need for further gossip. She felt a little awkward again.

* * *

Stephanie grinned as smugly as her mother and whistled appreciative.

"Now, _that_ was some kind of a dance, uncle Tommy. I can't remember that _we_ did it in a similar manner."

Daze shook her head. She had been watching not only the dancing couple but also the staring others in the great hall. Though she was happy for her son seeing him so jubilant she reprimanded him. "There was no need for _that_, Tommy. "

Barbara excused herself to the bar. She desperately needed some moments without them all and mainly a glass of water to cool down. This dance truly had been too hot.

Thomas smiled at his mother like a boy who had come home with a good school report. He was feeling extremely happy at the moment.

"Oh, mum..." he grinned from ear to ear. "I'm just showing the world that she is mine and I am hers."

"You literally undressed her with your eyes for at least two hours. And now _this_!" she rolled her eyes. "Compose yourself, Tommy."

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	9. Fight

**Fight  
**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**2...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Barbara stood at the bar waiting for the bar maid to take her order when a _voluminous_ woman in an exuberantly dolled up chiffon-thing hovered at her side.

_Beatrice._ she remembered. _Just some blonde highlights._ Barbara managed to hide her amusement about what Thomas had told her behind a polite smile._  
_

"Hi, Barbara." the blonde highlights fluted. "I've watched you dance with Tommy. You've been practicing on some police balls, I guess? You dance quite good together."

Barbara politely thanked her, making sure that she addressed her namely to show her that she had not forgotten their introduction. Truly she was not interested in a conversation with Beatrice. They talked two sentences about dancing in general and Beatrice asked her, faking it was en passant, how often they had been dancing together _this way_. While she answered avoidantly Barbara thought to herself that this obviously was the next nosy intruder. _I guessed as much!_

As much as she also guessed after _that_ beginning of the conversation Beatrice went quickly to the real point of her interest without the slightest cover for her nosiness.

"Oh, I can't see an engagement ring, Barbara!?" She sipped at her Martini and questioningly raised her eyebrows. Beatrice did not even try to smoothen the transition to another subject.

"Which is perhaps down to the fact that I am not engaged!?" And after a pause she added "Beatrice."

_Choke at your drink!_ she thought.

"I thought you were a couple."

"We are." Barbara desperately wished that the suddenly snail-slow bar maid would soon come over and take her order.

"But you're not going to marry Tommy?"

"Who said we won't?" _What rights do you have to take such liberties?_

"But..."

Barbara fully turned to Beatrice. "You know, Beatrice, modern people don't become engaged with all that pompous oldfashioned posh stuff."

_And I should get this conversation to an end _now_!_

Finally Barbara had the chance to order a glass of water and hoped that the sneaky interrogation would be stopped. She turned back to the bar to physically signalize her wish to end it but Beatrice did not notice or, more likely, ignored it.

"So, you actually _will_ marry him?"

"That's not said either." Barbara answered short and crisp. _And it's none of your business. You are stretching my nerves.  
_

"But you look so happy, darling, there _must_ be some future... well... _arrangement_." Beatrice showed a superficial smile.

Barbara looked at her for some seconds to sort out what she just had heard.

_What the hell...? Is she implying I'd be after his money?! That bloody... Calm down, Barb!_

"Well, modern women like me do not need an engagement ring nor a wedding ring nor even a ..._future arrangement_, like you so infelicitously named it, to be happy with a man. Thank you." _That means "thank you for the conversation and now get elsewhere."_ she added in her mind._  
_

Beatrice smiled again. It's a safe bet that she got the point but she simply ignored it. "Oh, and happy you are, one can tell. And besides, his Lordship really is a suitable match - in many ways."

Barbara snorted. _This daft cow won't get it._

"He is indeed, I agree. But still, we don't need to get married." Barbara turned halfway to leave without her drink but Beatrice put a hand on her lower arm to keep her at the bar.

Barbara was ticked off now. Her eyes narrowed. _Get your hands off me or I'll show you lesson one of Metropolitan Police Forces self-defence class._

"Oh, no..." Beatrice showed something like pity. "You don't want to have children? I always thought that Tommy..."

Barbara interrupted her slightly angry.

"Sorry, but as far as _I_ have paid attention to the lessons at my state school in the urban heart of London there is no need to be _married_ to get pregnant, but -"

The ordered water was served at that point and a false smile appeared on Beatrices face.

"Oh, so you _are_ pregnant?" she broke in. "Hence the water."

_That's the limit!_ Barbara was fuming now.

"Ok. This, dear Lady Beatrice, is - apart from being absolutely _none_ of your business - an impertinently inquisitive insinuation far beyond _every_ friendly interest."

Barbara nearly killed her with her eyes.

"But to satisfy your tremendous nosiness I will give you an answer you can share with your nosy companions." Barbara nodded to the group of people observing them curiously but now pretended to be busy with each other. "No, I am _not_."

Barbara took her iced water and Beatrice took a frightened step back expecting to be showered. "And now will you _please_ excuse my leave but I'm _disgusted_! Your presence really _pisses me off_." Barbara absolutely did not try to hide her anger now. She gave Lady Beatrice a last derogative snort with a sinister eye and left her standing dumbfolded at the bar.

* * *

Barbara hurried straight to the music room where she hoped nobody would be, carefully closed the door behind her and dumped on the settee where her tears finally started to run down her face. This little inquisition had affected her more than it might have given the impression to others - even to herself.

Her nerves had been stretched the entire evening with all those unfamiliarities and all this trivial talk with strangers. Her nervousness about all those people and the uncertainty of what might follow, especially at this party at midnight and with her relation to Thomas in general, had reached its high point after the nosy questions from Beatrice.

Now she truly needed to have a break with nobody around. Some minutes to catch a breath.

_This is absolutely not my world._ she thought. _I really don't know how I will ever cope with it, even for the sake of an unbelievingly strange but marvellous relationship. There certainly will be still more of those bloody events where I'd stick out like a sore thumb and people will have a lively interest in me, our partnership and my "exotic" background.  
_

She sighed. The bar seemed to be her doom. First Ulysses, who at least had the grace to leave when it was suitable, and now _this bloody daft cow!_

She shed a few more tears then wiped them and took some deep breaths. She wished that Thomas was here.

_...to see my make-up smudge, oh f***!_ Cursing herself for having been persuaded to put on the make-up Barbara also was glad that she had taken the water with her so now she could cool her face and wipe it a little with the napkin. When she heard a tentative knock at the door she straightened her back.

A second later Thomas, who had seen from a distance that she had disappeared in the music room and had followed eagerly, peeked around the door with a smile. Becoming aware of her tears he rushed inside and yanked her in a soothing embrace.

"Barbara! What's on?"

Relieved to have him near she shed a few more furious tears and angrily told him of her encounter with Beatrice. She fumed that the nosy (and other not at all polite adjectives) Lady had wanted to know everything about the state of their relationship or if she was pregnant.

"At least she didn't ask how often we... " she sobbed and gestured vaguely. "That daft cow! Honestly, she was stretching it too far! All this is absolutely none of her damn business!"

"It isn't." Thomas stroked her hair and kissed it. _And additionally it's something _we_ haven't talked over completely._ he thought.

"And you told her that clearly, didn't you?" he whispered.

Barbara nodded.

The door opened and Judith came in. "Sorry to interrupt, you silly lovebirds, but... hey, what's...? Errm, shall I..." she turned to leave.

"No, stay!" Barbara smiled lopsidedly.

"Barbara had met our lovely Lady Beatrice and needed a little steam-release." Thomas explained to his sister.

"Oh."

"I'm alright now."

"Good. Well, I'm truly sorry to interrupt you, Tommy, but it's about time. Mother is going to kill you when you miss your speech. Go. I'll take care. That is to say if it's alright with you, Barbara?"

Barbara nodded.

* * *

Thomas gave her a last gentle kiss on the forehead and left. Judith took Barbara and they hurried upstairs to rearrange her ruined face. While doing this Judith told Barbara that a long time ago Thomas had a short affair with Beatrice. But she knew from Tommy that before someone's bedroom had been entered he politely had left her.

"She's not his kind of women." Judith rolled her eyes. "Though her - sorry - balloons weren't inflated that much back then."

Barbara laughed.

"Since then Beatrice belonged to the group around Ulysses. They're invited if it's unavoidable, they're treated politely but nothing more. I think she would like to kill every woman that comes near to Tommy. She is so intrusive, you wouldn't believe. I've boxed her ears once on a funeral. She had talked so disrespectful, she had put me in rage. I still feel awful about it but I still think she deserved it. Did you...?" she grinned.

"No. I've even kept my drink."

"What a pity."

"Well... But I think I've adopted the wrong tone. I've told her that I'm disgusted and then... umm... I've said that her presence pisses me off. By chapter and verse." Barbara shamefacedly looked at her feet.

Judith raised her eyebrows. "Maybe her little brain needed some clear words, huh?!"

Both women laughed. Feeling better now having it shared and having her make-up restored Barbara was ready to face the arena again and they went downstairs.

* * *

It now was shortly before midnight.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	10. Countdown

**Countdown**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**1...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Thomas appeared at his mother's side. He had had to arrange something the bar maid had requested and also was delayed when he had to have a polite short-talk with a guest.

"Tommy, where on earth have you been? You are making me nervous! It's high time for your annual speech! You can't - "

"Sorry, mother, but Barbara had made inconvenient contact with our lovely Lady Beatrice. I had to soothe her a bit."

"Oh..." Daze, knowing Beatrice and her nosiness, was concerned. "Is she ok now?!"

"Yes, thank you." At that moment Barbara joined them with Judith following at her heels. "I'm fully recovered but I think Beatrice won't forget my errrm... _ungracious_ words in a hurry."

Judith laughed. "Well, I hope so. Such a - "

"Please keep it!" Daze interrupted and glared at her daughter who rolled her eyes in response.

"Well, at least I know now whose presence I have to avoid." Barbara muttered. "Though I think they'll avoid me likewise."

* * *

**Quarter to midnight.**

* * *

It was shortly before midnight when Thomas asked the ensemble to keep silent for a moment. He entered the little podium and knocked on the microphone.

_TOC TOC TOC_

"Knock knock knock!" Thomas grinned and had his guests' attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and family." he started and let his eyes wander over the entire room. Some came rushing in from the bar.

Thomas' siblings and Daze stood right next to the podium as well as Stephanie and Emily. Judith also had dragged Barbara with her to stand together with the rest of the family. Barbara tried to become invisible, tried to hide as far away from Thomas as was possible without looking ridiculous. The least she had liked now was being mentioned or even indirectly addressed in his speech.

For her liking she and every aspect of the relationship with Thomas had been mentioned frequently enough on this party.

"Thank you all for being here." Thomas said overlooking the guests. "I hope it has been a nice party until now for all of you. I can assure you the event is not over yet - different, by the way, from the old year. There are left a few minutes only, in which I want to thank my mother for once again organizing this once again lovely event. Thank you, mum."

His mother smiled back at him and nodded her thanks to the small applause.

"I also like to be thankful that the last year had been without greater catastrophes. Instead I had the pleasure to witness some very non-catastrophic moments..." He grinned at Barbara who had liked to disappear when Daze squeezed her elbow and Judith raised her eyebrows in amusement and mumbled "Hear, hear!" to his words.

Daze shot a glare over to her daughter but the twitch in the corners of her mouth told of her own amusement.

"...and I dearly hope that all of you had some of those moments too." He paused. "May the next year start as wonderful as this year ends. Well, and of course it should _proceed_ wonderful." He winked. "Now let's have the band play one more cheerful song, all of you get a glass of champagne and in a few minutes the countdown will start. I'll leave it to my brother Peter this year for it's time we share the family obligations. With this I deliver you from my boring wittering. Still have a nice party, enjoy the midnight-champagne, we'll meet again next year. See you later." He smiled. "Thank you."

The following applause went over into the first beats when the ensemble started their last song for this year. Servants were now walking around with trays full of glasses with champagne.

Thomas had stepped down from the podium to give his mother, then his sister a kiss on the cheek and to pat on his brother's back. Then he took two glasses of champagne from the tray a servant offered the group of family members and motioned Barbara away from the podium.

"Let's move away from here." he whispered.

* * *

**Three minutes to midnight.  
**

* * *

The song ended and Peter jumped onto the podium, grabbing the microphone and twirling it around like a dancing partner.

"Hello, dear guests. Thank you for joining the show!" he said with an Elvis Presley imitation voice. He grinned foolishly and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Ladies and gents. My big brother finally took heart and delegated an important task to me: I am allowed to initiate the new year."

"Hear, hear!" Simon laughed.

"Yes, he can be generous sometimes." Peter grinned. "Dear friends, please don't be afraid when in a few moments exactly at midnight somebody will turn off the lights like it's tradition on our New Year's Eve party. The following fireworks will light and lighten you up anyway. Well, this year I have the pleasure to give proof that my lessons in mathematics weren't a total waste of time and I will count down the seconds - oh, Emily, please come over here, hurry! I'm going to kiss you in a minute!"

He got a laugh from the audience. Peter put his arm around his girlfriend and continued his little speech.

"Yes, because I'm busy at the mike my dear sister Judith stands at the light switch this year. But the darkness, like I told you, won't last long. By the way - how _long_ do I have to continue babbling this nonsense?" he looked at his watch. "What's the exact - oh...

* * *

**Fifteen seconds to midnight.  
**

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, you won't believe it... here we go! Ten..."

* * *

Thomas had dragged Barbara into the corner of the great hall, had placed the champagne on a table nearby and now pulled her into his arms.

... nine...

Thomas smiled down to her.

... eight...

_I am entirely happy._

... seven...

Barbara beamed up to him.

... six...

_I'm deliriously happy._

... five...

Thomas' heart raced. A thought shot through his mind.

... four...

_We haven't kissed properly the entire evening._

... three...

Thomas bent down to Barbara's face and whispered

"Two..." _You and me!_

Barbara's heart skipped a beat and she whispered

"One..." _We!_

* * *

The lights went off.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	11. Fireworks

**Fireworks**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**0...**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**Midnight.**

* * *

Darkness in the great hall.

* * *

"...Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen." Peter said and kissed Emily on the podium.

"Happy New Year!" Barbara and Thomas whispered simultaneously right before their lips melted into each other.

* * *

The ensemble played Auld Lang Syne and most guests joined in singing. Barbara and Thomas did not - their lips were busy with something extremely more important. When the second verse of the song played the world outside exploded in green. Through all 576 panels of the huge window in the great hall the fireworks blinked and flashed from outside and the party guests moved nearer to it with delighted _Awws_ and _Ooohs_.

* * *

Unaffected by all this Barbara and Thomas stood in the hidden corner on the other side and held each other close. Barbara had her arms wound around his neck, crossed at her wrists and Thomas had put his hands on her hips pulling her into him.

Their eyes were closed and they kissed deeply, enjoying their own little private fireworks.

Initially they just had pressed their lips softly against the other one's for the first time on this party but soon Barbara had started to nibble gently at his bottom lip and finally his tongue found its way into her mouth and he twisted it around hers in a mellow rage. With gentle but undeniable desire their hips were firmly pressed into the other one's body.

For what seemed like hours they stood there kissing tenderly. Eventually they came up in need for air, both heavily breathing onto the opposite face while outside it banged and thundered and flashed in green.

"I love you." he sighed.

Barbara smiled herself into his dark eyes and he drowned himself in her smile.

Eyes went shut and their lips met again. Then he whispered onto hers.

"I've asked for completely green fireworks this year just for your sake."

He kissed her.

"Emerald fireworks like the little green gem on your neck."

He gave her another gentle kiss.

"Emerald fireworks like your sparkling emerald eyes, Barbara."

She gave him another tender kiss.

"Emerald fireworks are exploding in my brain..." He kissed her. "...in my heart..." He kissed her. "...and in mmmh..." She kissed him. "...my belly..."

Then he kissed her lingering. "...when I see you..." he mumbled without loosing contact to her lips. "...or hear you..." he muttered onto her mouth. "...or smell you..." he murmured with his nose gently rubbing hers. "...or kiss you..."

Their lips met for some more tender moments in the flashing green lights from outside.

"I love you, Barbara." he whispered. "Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year, Thomas." Their mouths melted again.

"I love you." she aspirated onto his lips with abated breath.

* * *

Her eyes sprung open and widened when she felt his body stiffen, when she saw his pupils dilate after those words, when her heart stopped for a second, when both realized that she really had said it aloud. Those three little words, ever so lightly weighing more than the world, suddenly had come so easily to her.

A broad and happy smile appeared on her face, mirrored by his.

"I love you, Thomas." she breathlessly repeated and, as if she enjoyed saying it, she said it again.

Her voice was steady now. "I love you."

Unbreaking his smile his lips crashed onto hers.

* * *

**.**

* * *

**...**


	12. Afterglow

**Afterglow  
**

* * *

**.**

* * *

Barbara and Thomas had missed the entire fireworks and were only seperated shortly before the last lights of the grand finale flashed when Deborah and Simon wished them a Happy New Year.**  
**

"Hey, you twosome, stop your kissing, you have guests to pamper."

Simon thrashed his prank onto Thomas' back and pulled him into a big bear hug.

"Happy New Year, Barbara." Deborah gave her a cheek-to-cheek kiss and whispered in her ear. "You're beaming!"

Barbara was still slightly breathless and her lips felt soft. She could not yet prompt her tongue to speak.

Deborah winked delighted and also kissed Thomas' cheek.

Judith and Daze came along and they all wished each other a Happy New Year.

It was a great breeziness around when everybody exchanged kisses and hugs or just wished each other a Happy New Year. One by one most of the family and friends also came around to Barbara and Thomas. Finally Judith managed to go off to the side with Barbara.

"Tell the truth!"

Deborah also appeared. "Well?"

The two women linked arms on the left and on the right of Barbara and nobbled her away from the others.

"What?!" Barbara had no idea what they both wanted.

"You're still beaming, Barbara. Your eyes sparkle with happiness. Tommy has an equal radiance. What's happened? Tell the truth!" Judith raised her eyebrows. "_What_ did he say to you?!"

Barbara flushed. "We..." she cleared her throat. "Nothing. We just kissed." she smiled coyly then something dawned in her mind.

"No!" she laughed. "You're intruders! But still no!"

"Please tell us the truth!" Judith begged.

"Your whole body is aflame, Barbara." Deborah laughed.

"Guess what - it was indeed a _very_ hot kiss." Barbara flushed again. "But by the way, it's none of your business, I'd like to add."

"I've seen you whispering. And you both are still beaming now. This _must_'ve been a very special conversation." Judith smugly grinned.

"It was. And now shut up!" Barbara was too happy to be angry with their nosy questioning and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"She's become quite cheeky since I last met her, Judith, don't you think?"

They dropped that special topic of their conversation but lightheartedly bantered on with some Champagne. Across the room Barbara catched his eyes from time to time and they exchanged overwhelmingly happy and tender looks.

* * *

.

* * *

The string and piano ensemble had had their last song with Auld Lang Syne and had left the manor. The music now was from CD and much more lively and young. The music in the library was even more modern and attracted "the young ones".

Some guests already had left Howenstow when Daze went to the microphone at half past twelve. It was time for her speech so she turned down the music.

"Ladies and gentlemen." she waited for silence. "Dear family, dear friends, I wish to say my thanks to all of you. Thank you for joining this party. I'd like to raise my glass to you, my guests, for guests are what makes a party a party. So, cheers to you."

She raised her Champagne.

"It has been a nice year with a particularly wonderful ending. I would like to follow the words from my son and wish you all that the coming year would be wonderful. Now go on dancing or drinking or whatever you want. If you feel like burning the candle at both ends you may wish to have a snack in between. Feel free to pick a little something from the buffet in the kitchen. The smell of toast may lead the way. If you need a driver please ask at the bar. Feel free to leave or to stay as long as you wish. The bar will be dismantled and collected tomorrow at ten a.m. so this would be the curfew time I suppose." The guests laughed and she nodded. "So, good night, my friends, and again thank you." Then she turned the music on again.

* * *

.

* * *

It was about three thirty when finally most guests and nearly all of the servants had left the party. Just some young ones lounged around in the library or at the bar. Daze and the other elder overnight guests had already excused themselves to their rooms for the night.

Peter, Emily and Stephanie were slightly tipsy and had their fun at the bar, alongside unseemly decorating Albert with some cocktail umbrellas. The poor boozer was sleeping with his head on the bar like almost every year. In the music room Judith lolled on an armchair and discussed the world and more with some cousins while others danced in the library to hellishly loud rock music.

* * *

In the great hall the lights were dimmed and the slow background music was playing low.

Barbara had kicked off her still unfamiliar shoes some time ago and danced barefoot with Thomas who had already taken off his dinner jacket.

Nobody else was in the great hall anymore. They were the last couple on the dancefloor, softly swaying together in their far away universe, kissing and caressing each other, whispering sweetnesses, kissing again.

Thomas cupped her cheek when Barbara had her arms wound around his waist and they were bathing in each other's eyes. He caressed her lips with his thumb, then let his hand softly hover across her jaws, her ears and into the back of her neck. There he opened the clasp, put it in his pocket and Barbara's accurately pinned up hair fell down in funny curls.

Thomas burrowed his hands in her hair.

"It's grown quite a lot since we first met." he whispered. "Like that... thing between the two of us."

Barbara nodded with a smile and chuckled amused by his choice of words. "Thing!? Aha."

"Lovely bewitchingly thingy, this relationship is." Thomas smiled tenderly. "This love of ours." He placed his lips gently on hers and embraced her again.

Nuzzling in her hair he asked "You know why Beatrice is so jealous for you?"

Barbara lifted her head from his chest.

"What? Are you thinking of that bloody bitch at this very moment?! You are not very romantic, your Lordship."

She had opened his bow-tie and now pulled at the loose ends to get his face down to hers. He willingly followed her guidance and they shared another deep kiss.

Thomas went on. "She's powerless against you, Barbara, and she would be left out in the cold even when she'd be the only woman in the world."

"Wha' stupid nonsense are you actually talkin' about, Sir?"

"You, Havers." He kissed her again. "I'm talking about you. When you enter a room, everything else blurs and fades."

"Nonsense." Barbara blushed slightly.

Thomas watched her earnestly. "I'm serious, Barbara. My heart stops, my eyes can't focus but on you, my tongue is numb, my legs can't move, my breath gets shallow - "

"Then you need a doctor." Barbara whispered with a touched smile.

"...and you don't even realise that you have that effect on me. When you enter the room I just want to kiss you." he breathed sweetly and let a kiss follow his words.

"Oh, it's going to be so hard to keep me at bay in the Yard." Thomas sighed. "This is a promise, Barbara."

"No! Please don't stare at me all the time." Barbara still played with his bow-tie and slightly blushed. "Because when you stare at me that way I become unbelievably nervous."

"You wouldn't believe it, but it is so, so sexy when you blush." He smiled. "I love to stare at you and will do it entirely."

"You're nasty, Thomas." Though she blushed again she closed her eyes and pulled him down to her lips once more. They shared a long lasting slow and seducingly tender kiss.

When they tried to regain some breath Thomas pulled her body even closer and lifted her off her feet grinning broadly.

"It won't be easy but the next year will be absolutely fantastic, Barbara. You're with me, I'm with you..."

Twirled around in the air Barbara let herself joyfully be kissed.

* * *

"Yah! 'n' don' think you'll get rid o'me soon." she smiled under his lips. "A brand new year, a brand new chapter... Mmmmmh, Tommmm!"

"No - a brand new _story_ this will be."

"I am _so_ looking forward to it."

"So am I."

* * *

**.**

* * *

**.**

* * *

**Author's final notes:** That's it. Forgive me when I say that I am slightly pleased with this fireworks episode. Now I think I'll have a break. But guess what - there are already some ideas for their coming year. And another story (not belonging to the "emerald series") is nearly finished. I've got too much of this in my brain, believe me... ;-)

Thanks for ALL your reviews and comments.

Tess.


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